KingArthursCourt
pronouns: he/him/his
The goal is, obviously, the most clear cut and objective counting statistic in hockey (setting aside fringe cases like figuring out if the puck grazed a player or not and so whose goal it should be). The assist, on the other hand, while tracked as a counting statistic in the same way and even given equal value in the context of points (up to the tiebreaker) is an artificial construct that features at least a few points of subjectivity:
1. The awarding of assists at all is at the discretion of scorekeepers who must make qualitative determinations on whether 0, 1, or 2 assists should be awarded for each goal.
2. The secondary assist is a totally subjective cut-off point; any argument for why there should be more than one assist awarded on a goal ("sometimes the secondary assist is the most important part of the goal!") can easily be extended to any number of assists - if 5 players team up on a goal, who's to say the 4th assist isn't the "most important" part of the scoring play?
So my question is this: has anyone attempted to analytically examine what would happen under different possible formulations of the assist, such as not awarding secondary assists (the data for this obviously exists - primary assists - but more what it would do to scoring tables and career stats), or awarding up to 5 assists on a goal, if the scorekeeper determined it justified (this would of course require going through many games and making judgment calls on each goal)? I think it would be interesting to see the effect of 1st assists, 2nd assists, 3rd assists, etc.
1. The awarding of assists at all is at the discretion of scorekeepers who must make qualitative determinations on whether 0, 1, or 2 assists should be awarded for each goal.
2. The secondary assist is a totally subjective cut-off point; any argument for why there should be more than one assist awarded on a goal ("sometimes the secondary assist is the most important part of the goal!") can easily be extended to any number of assists - if 5 players team up on a goal, who's to say the 4th assist isn't the "most important" part of the scoring play?
So my question is this: has anyone attempted to analytically examine what would happen under different possible formulations of the assist, such as not awarding secondary assists (the data for this obviously exists - primary assists - but more what it would do to scoring tables and career stats), or awarding up to 5 assists on a goal, if the scorekeeper determined it justified (this would of course require going through many games and making judgment calls on each goal)? I think it would be interesting to see the effect of 1st assists, 2nd assists, 3rd assists, etc.